New Experimental Results on the Interaction of Molten Corium with Reactor Vessel Steel
- Scientific Research Technological Institute (NITI), Sosnovy Bor, 188540, Leningrad Region (Russian Federation)
- Institute of Silicate Chemistry (ISCh of RASc) Odoevsky Street, b. 24/2, 199155, St. Petersburg (Russian Federation)
- SPb. Electrotechnical University (SPbGETU), Professor Popov Street, b. 5/3, 197376 St. Petersburg (Russian Federation)
- Nuclear Safety Research Program (NUKLEAR), 3640, D-76021 Karlsruhe (Germany)
- Europaische Komission, Joint Research Centre Institut fuer Transurane (ITU), Hermann-von-Helmholtz Platz 1, 76125, Karlsruhe (Germany)
- Framatome ANP GmbH, Freyeslebenstr.1, 91054, Erlangen (Germany)
- CEA/DEN/DSNI, Bbt 121, 91191 Gif sur Yvette Cedex, Saclay (France)
- Fortum Nuclear Services Ltd, POB 10, FIN-00048 Fortum (Finland)
In order to justify the concept of in-vessel core melt retention, it is necessary to understand the thermal and physico-chemical phenomena. Especially the interaction of the molten pool with the reactor vessel during outside cooling needs to be understood. These phenomena are very complex, in particular, where interactions with the oxidic melt are concerned. In the early stages of the retention process, the oxidic corium and the vessel steel interact under the conditions of low oxygen potential in the melt. These conditions can be simulated by a molten corium having the composition UO{sub 2}/ZrO{sub 2}/Zr, where the degree of Zr-oxidation is in the range between 30 % (C-30) and 100 % (C-100). Corresponding experiments with prototypic melts at low oxygen potentials are being performed in the ISTC METCOR project 2. phase. These are: - MC 5 of corium composition 71w%UO{sub 2}-29w%ZrO{sub 2} (C-100) in neutral atmosphere (argon), - MC 6 of corium composition 76w%UO{sub 2}-9w%ZrO{sub 2}-15w%Zr (C{approx}30), also in argon. In test MC 5, the interaction of molten C-100 corium with a water-cooled steel specimen was studied for the following maximum temperatures at the specimen surface: 1075 deg. C, 1180 deg. C, 1315 deg. C and 1435 deg. C. The total duration of the experiment was {approx} 36 hours. The MC 5 test serves as a reference test for determining the characteristics of the interaction between oxidic melt and steel specimen under the conditions of minimum chemical interaction potential. To investigate the effect of substoichiometry, test No 6 was then performed with sub-oxidized molten corium C{approx}30. The maximum surface temperature of the cooled steel specimen was held at {approx} 1400 deg. C. The test duration was {approx} 10 hours. The ablation phenomena were found to differ significantly from those observed both in the reference test, as well as in former tests with oxidized melts, as they involved the formation of a low-melting metallic phase at the interface which contains iron, zirconium and uranium. The paper summarizes the results of the experiments and of the performed posttest analysis for tests MC 5 and MC 6. (authors)
- Research Organization:
- American Nuclear Society, 555 North Kensington Avenue, La Grange Park, IL 60526 (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 21160626
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: ICAPP'04: 2004 international congress on advances in nuclear power plants, Pittsburgh, PA (United States), 13-17 Jun 2004; Other Information: Country of input: France; 16 refs; Related Information: In: Proceedings of the 2004 international congress on advances in nuclear power plants - ICAPP'04, 2338 pages.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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